October 1, 2009

"Yes, Ma'am.....I did."

I have come to the conclusion that any and everyone who has more than one child undoubtedly has one that isn't--let's say "the most organized". My second child falls into this category. In the past, as I would wash clothes on Saturday I would realize that he only had 1 pair of dirty underwear for the prior week and 1 sock....who wears only 1 sock at a time?? Also, he tends to believe that shorts and pants never need to be washed, so there were minimal amounts of those in his hamper. When I would ask him if he had given me ALL of his dirty clothes, his answer was always, "Yes, ma'am....I did." Upon further inspection of his room I would always find more dirty underwear, socks (actual pairs) and shorts/pants stuffed or thrown in various places that escaped his vision. I am wondering what the parameters of peripheral vision are for a 9 year old boy.
In order to help him be more organized, we bought him crates and labeled them Monday, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri and Weekend. At the end of each day the corresponding crate should at least have a shirt, socks (2!) and underwear. We still haven't accomplished having this done correctly at the end of each day....somehow the socks fly off of his feet only to be forgotten, and the underwear.....well who knows where that goes 90% of the time?
Because I know this to be true, I stay out of the basement (boys' room) as much as possible because it only stresses me out to see the mess. Yes, it stresses me out! I just don't understand how they can't SEE the dirty clothes on the floor!! What's more....if I only had a short-span memory Jacob would get away with wearing the same shirt multiple times in one week... most likely because it is already laying on the floor by his bed when he wakes up. He often tries to get away with it!
Well, today I thought I would bite the bullet and go down there. After asking Jacob multiple times last night "Are your dirty clothes where they should be?" and getting the response "Yes, ma'am....they are." I have decided that is the wrong question! Apparently the floor is "where they should be" in his mind. I should ask if the dirty clothes are in the correct crates. I can't believe I have been a mom this long and I still don't know how to ask questions to my kids!

"Jacob, did you clean your room?" "Yes, ma'am....I did."

If you look closely you can see 4 random socks....1 is by the bookshelf!

My mom wouldn't have let me leave the house with my bed looking like that!

These are his crates....with dirty clothes on the floor beside them!

Such a mess!!

I collected 2 bags and 1 box of toys that weren't put away.

The pile of dirty clothes I collected while cleaning.
This is what his room should look like!

The theme song around our house is "He's still working on me!"

2 comments:

Janette said...

LOL, Caci. :) I'm sure one of these days he'll get it together!! And the room looks great now that you fixed it! :)

Dr Eva said...

To make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the Earth and Jupiter and Mars. LOL That is so funny. Well, it is for me at least. ;-)